Apple CEO Tim Cook has a strong message for stockholders who don't like his company's stance on environmental issues and its concerns about global warming: "Get out of the stock."

Representatives from the conservative National Center for Public Policy were on hand at Apple's annual shareholders meeting to demand that the company pledge that it would not pursue environmental efforts, including methods to fight back on climate change, unless they improve Apple's bottom line, reports Mashable.

But NCPPR General Counsel John Danhof, in a statement released before the meeting, said it objects to "increased government control over company products and operations, and likewise mandatory environmental standards," saying "this is something [Apple] should be actively fighting, not preparing surrender."

NCPPR came to the meeting to seek a vote on its proposal to force the company to disclose even more information about its sustainability programs, reports MacObserver.com.

The think tank also demands that Apple be more open about how it participates in "certain trade associations and business organizations promoting the amorphous concept of environmental sustainability."

Cook is a passionate environmentalist, and after he took over from Jobs, he ordered Apple to make vast improvements in its use of renewable energy.

Cook hired former EPA head Lisa Jackson last year to lead his company's environmental efforts, and these days, three-quarters of all of the company's facilities, including all of its data centers and its Cupertino, Calif., headquarters, run on solar, wind, geothermal, or hydro power. This up from about one-fourth of the worldwide facilities when Jobs was running the company, reports Mashable, and Cook one day wants all Apple facilities to use green power.

But the NCPPR asserts that Apple's future goal of having 100 percent of the power used to fuel its business come from green sources was only made so it can milk government subsidies for companies using green energy.

Cook, the normally mild-mannered successor to much-more fiery-tempered late Apple founder and CEO Steve Jobs, angrily told the representatives during a question-and-answer session at the stockholders' meeting that Apple takes its mission to the environment seriously, even though it doesn't earn the company money.

"When we work on making our devices accessible by the blind," he said. "I don't consider the bloody ROI. If you want me to do things only for ROI reasons, you should get out of this stock."

Environmental efforts make economic sense, Cook said, and the company does "a lot of things for reasons besides profit motive. We want to leave the world better than we found it."

After Cook's passionate response, shareholders rejected the NCPPR proposal, which received only 2.95 percent of the vote.